In 2023, consumer spending on mobile apps grew 3% compared to 2022 to a record $171 billion in the App Store, Google Play and other Android app stores. This is reported by TechCrunch with a link to the annual “State of Mobile” report from analytics provider data.ai.
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It notes that a growing portion of this overall consumer spending is on software rather than mobile games, thanks in part to the success of TikTok. However, the number of app downloads remained at 257 billion last year, up just 1% from 2022.
The relentless growth of the app economy stalled in 2022 after the Covid recession as consumer spending normalized and With the economy in recession, more and more people were tightening their wallets.
Estimates have even suggested that consumer spending may have slowed in Apple's App Store as well, but exact figures could not be obtained as Apple's share of transactions is no longer a flat 30% worldwide. Last year, the situation began to move in a positive direction again.
Consumer spending on non-gaming apps in 2023 increased by 11% compared to 2022 and reached $64 billion, with TikTok becoming the leader in this direction.
Last year, spending on the short-video platform reached a new milestone of more than $10 billion over its lifetime, becoming the first non-gaming app to do so. This year, data.ai predicts that consumer monetization in social apps will grow by 150% to $1.3 billion.On the other hand, in 2023, more than 1,500 apps and games generated more than $10 million annually, while 219 topped $100 million and 13 topped $1 billion. Four new apps reached $1 billion annually, including Royal Match, Google One, Max and Gardenscapes.
The Role of AI
At the same time, the development of generative AI contributed to the growth of consumer spending last year. The genAI app market expanded 7x, leading to new consumer experiences such as chatbots and AI art generators.
From a consumer spending perspective, top apps included ChatGPT, Ask AI, and Open Chat. Data.ai notes that the popularity of artificial intelligence apps has been quite global, with the exception of China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
To take advantage of consumer demand, more than 4,000 apps have added the word “chatbot” to their descriptions , and more than 3,500 added “gpt.” In addition, 2,500 applications with the word “chatbot” in the description were launched in 2023—almost twice as many as in the previous four years combined.
In addition to applications with artificial intelligence, 2023 will see good Other applications that implement artificial intelligence functions have also proven themselves.
According to data.ai, the number of downloads of 20 applications that added such functions increased by 11% compared to the previous year. 13 out of 20 (65%) also experienced positive growth.
